Rising figures... Fallingfear

Ever since the BPO employee was raped and murdered by the driver, in Bangalore, life has never been quite the same for 30-year-old Rumela Sen, a mediaperson, living in Kolkata. "I check on the driver before I board the car at night. But despite that there is always this fear in my mind while going back . WHAT IF....Sonari Sahu is a domestic help living in Lakshmikantapur who travels to and fro Kolkata by a local train. "On days when I get late and I fail to catch the train with all the other workers I have to walk back a long stretch from the station. I always feel a knot in my stomach. WHAT IF...Forty five-year-old Shivani Sen was recently followed by a group of young men who eventually snatched her purse and gold chain. "I don't mind losing valuables. I was scared stiff. WHAT IF...I GET MOLESTED OR RAPED? ou might be the educated woman y of today, walking up the ladder of success and etching your own identity or you might be the illiterate village woman trying hard to eke out an existence but it's this fear factor that indelibly and paradoxically binds you together. The fear of physical assault and violation hangs like the Sword of Damocles on every woman's head and the escalating violence against women is giving a fillip to this fear. Bula Bhadra, head of the department of sociology, Calcutta University explains the paradox through her own experience: "I was coming home after delivering a lecture about women's rights at a seminar. My plane got delayed and I landed at Dum Dum airport at 12 am. I had to call my husband to pick me up because I felt unsafe." It's this feeling of being at risk that pervades in every woman's mind and becomes manifold as she tries to make a place for herself in the public space. "Now women are doubly at risk because they have to balance both the private and public sphere," says Bhadra adding, "But if you look at it historically then you will see that economic progress of a society is inversely proportional to the progress of women. Earlier women were equal to men then as we progressed we became subordinate, then controlled and eventually marginalised. And rape is the highest form of brutal power that men can exert over women to reinforce control. Now even women are part of the workforce not as partners but as add ons. Inside the BPO she is an employee but as soon she steps out her physicality takes over and she is at risk, something that does not happen to her male counterparts," elucidates Bhadra. It's this risk factor that's ingrained in a woman's psyche and there is no way she can escape it. Tumpa Mukherjee, part-time teacher in sociology in Presidency College said, "More than the crime itself it is the fear of the crime that has been internalised by us. We suffer from a fear psychosis in a male dominated patriarchal risk society." And if we go by statistics and reports coming out in the newspapers everyday, our fears are justified. In 2005, 633 rape cases were reported in Delhi, the highest ever in an Indian metro. Out of every 100 rape cases in India, only 10 are reported and out of every 100 accusations, only five offenders are convicted. Mumbai featured second with 181 cases, Chennai reported 75 cases and Kolkata had 21 cases. Surajit C Mukhopadhyay of Centre for Studies in Sciences says, "It is the normlessness and anonymity of large cities that allows the perpetrator to take cover.

But 80 per cent of rape cases show that the perpetrator was known to the victim. Hence, women are always at risk." And worse still The National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2004 there were 64 cases of incest rape. Known or unknown, violation can happen anywhere, anytime. And how the male psyche works was best shown in the cult film The Accused starring Jodie Foster or even later in Damini, Adalat E Ekti Meye or more recently 15 Park Avenue. amrita.mukherjee@timesgroup.com